Adolescent Media Use, Race, Gender and Timing of Initiation of Sexual Behaviors in Heterosexual Youth

• In Event: Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: PS 11 Topic - Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Abstract

One factor that is linked to increased risk for STIs, unintended pregnancy, and other negative sexual health consequences among youth and young adults is early initiation of sexual activity. Adolescents develop sexually in multiple contexts that span multiple levels of social organization through engaging in interactions and processes within their social environments, acquiring sex knowledge, skills, motivation, behaviors and abilities over the life course (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006). Adolescents receive complex and, at times, conflicting messages, signals, and cues about sexual behavior via multiple developmental and socialization processes, including media socialization. In adolescence, media emerge as major social influences in the lives of youth, among family, school, and community environments, especially as relates to shaping their sexual attitudes, intentions and behaviors (L'Engle, Brown, & Kenneavy, 2006).
Informed by insights from intersectionality theory and the bioecological framework for adolescent media sexual socialization (BFAMSS) (Bethune, 2016), and using Waves 1 through 5 of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), this study examined adolescent media use and the initiation of sexual behavior across the life course in heterosexual youth. Further, acknowledging how media can project and promote racialized, gendered, and classified representations and messages, I focused on intersections of race/ethnicity and gender. I conducted hierarchical survival analysis regression analyses using the Cox proportional hazards model to examine the relationship between adolescent media use and the timing of initiation of vaginal, oral, and anal sexual intercourse.
Findings from longitudinal analyses in this study showed that, for some participants, adolescent media use was significantly associated with vaginal and oral, but not anal sex initiation. Using higher amounts of media during adolescence was associated with earlier vaginal sex initiation. When race, gender, and socioeconomic status were also considered, media use was still independently associated with vaginal and oral sex initiation. For each sexual behavior female participants on average and within each racial group, initiated each sex behavior at a significantly older age than did males. When data were disaggregated by race-by-gender subgroups, media use remained a significant factor only for White males and their initiation of vaginal and oral sex, and for White females and vaginal sex initiation, but not for any other racial-gender subgroups.
The findings from my study help to clarify the gendered and racialized patterns of media use and sexual initiation among heterosexual youth and shed light onto the relationship between media use, race, gender, socioeconomic status and the timing of sexual initiation. Intersectionality theory also serves as a helpful framework for examinations that aim to understand more comprehensively the varieties of experiences of diverse adolescents.

Author

• Magaela Bethune, Loyola Marymount University
  Presenting Author